CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — The driver of a Chesterfield County school bus has now been cited by the South Carolina Highway Patrol after the bus overturned Friday afternoon.
According to SCHP, the driver of the bus was driving too fast for conditions along a dirt road, leading to the bus turning onto its side. Officials with the Chesterfield County School District said 24 students were on the bus at the time, and eight were sent to the hospital. All eight students were eventually released and back at home.
School district officials later confirmed that students from New Heights Middle School and Jefferson Elementary School were on the bus at the time of the accident. The bus overturned along McCaskill Road near the intersection with Angelus Road.
“Next thing we know, we just hear 'boom' and then we all fall onto the ground," Kylee Hatchel, 11, who was on the bus, said, "And we were rushing to get out the exits.”
Aside from bumps and scratches, Hatchel is okay. Eight other students were taken to the hospital with injuries, officials said.
"[On] one of the little girls they had started cutting up her pants -- I guess something was wrong with her legs," Ashley Cobb, Hatchel's mom, said, "There was a little girl that had a neck brace on and something like a brace on her back."
Cobb said she is relieved her daughter is okay and concerned about the other children on the bus. She doesn't, however, fault the bus driver for what happened. While authorities have not said what caused the crash, Cobb believes it's the dirt road the school bus was driving on that contributed to the crash.
“When I got to the scene, I could hardly walk the road, that’s how slick it was," Cobb said. "I was slipping."
Neighbors said it’s been a problem for years, and not just on McCaskill Road.
Resident Ethan Foard says there are many unpaved county-maintained roads in Chesterfield County.
“When it gets a little bit of rain on it, it turns into peanut butter," Foard said.
While officials have not released a cause for the crash, Foard and others want this to be a cautionary tale.
“These dirt roads are so bad that every year, buses have trouble getting up and down them," Nicole Simpson, also a resident, said. "That just happened to be one of the worst things that happened.
The condition of the eight students is unknown.
WCNC Charlotte viewer Nicole Simpson shared photos with reporter Indira Eskieva that showed the bus on its side. Simpson also got a look inside the bus before it was brought back on its wheels. A wrecker eventually towed it away.
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